One Gem, Two Gem, Yellow Gem, Blue Gem
by Tandirra
Summary: NO SLASH. Part six of a series that started pre-literally any of phase two. Taking place only a few months after the events of the last fic, the Avengers are dealing with the consequences of the shattering of the scepter and the reveal of the Mind Gem. Worst of all, most of them still don't know about it.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm warning you now, if you haven't read the others, especially the most recent one, you're not gonna know what's going on at all. I'd say if you want to get to this and read the minimum to understand: read the first one, third one bc i like that one, and the fourth and fifth one since those are fairly important as well. So read all but the second I guess, it's not that crucial I don't think.**

* * *

The twang of a live guitar somewhere in the distance was almost overpowered by the sound of a bustling crowd. Hundreds of white tents, all set up with colorful overflowing displays lined the streets.

A rack of novelty sunglasses caught Loki's eye.

"Hey, how do I look?"

The group ground to a halt as Loki snatched a pair of heart shaped sunglasses from the stand, flashing a smile at the attendee working it, and spun around, wearing them.

Tony sipped his drink and smirked.

" _Classy_."

"You're the one drinking a _bacon_ bloody mary."

Clutching his drink close to his chest, Tony gasped dramatically.

"How dare you, it's delicious!"

Loki grinned, turning back around to inspect what they looked like in the small mirror by the display.

To avoid unwanted attention Loki had provided everyone with a glamour, as even after intense deliberation the rest of them were unwilling to have Loki actually physically alter their bodies. Leaving Loki the only one to do so.

Silky dark hair fell across Loki's face, the red frames popped against both their hair and pale skin. The sunglasses, despite their ridiculousness, though possibly because of it, Loki was charmed by them. It certainly helped that they covered the dark eye bags that were practically a permanent addition to his features in the last few months.

The shop owner tapped her fingers nervously against the table.

"Ma'am, _I_ think you look wonderful in them."

At her words, Loki let out a light laugh, a bell like tinkle with their changed voice.

"Well, I'm sold."

Before Loki could pay; Natasha gasped and stepped up to the stall. She picked out a pair of red, white, and blue glasses, grinning with impish glee.

"We're getting these too."

Loki snickered and glanced back at Steve; who was hiding his face in his hands, looking like he was trying his best to disappear.

Despite that, they left the stall plus two novelty sunglasses, both being worn.

The day passed with nothing more eventful than Thor accidentally breaking the "Test Your Strength" game, which led to profuse apologies and Tony having to pay off the owner handsomely to avoid them getting reported and kicked out of the fair, and Clint easily winning a giant stuffed bear from a ring toss, which he refused to give up.

Dusk began to fall across the festival as an autumn chill settled over the town.

Loki fidgeted with the sunglasses as they listened to the last performance of the night.

This had been a nice distraction, however; the gem… _his gem_.

A prickling sensation alerted Loki to Tony, who was watching him, eyes narrowed. Loki met his gaze, silently daring him to speak his mind. Tony simply shook his head and turned back to watch the band on stage. A tight muscle in his jaw conveyed to Loki clearly enough what Tony felt about what he had previously described as: "an obsession".

 **00000**

A dull boom from somewhere above rattled the loose bolts on the table and startled Tony enough for him to drop the repulsor he was tinkering with.

"Shit!"

He winced sympathetically as he picked the repulsor up, attempting to buff out the newly acquired scuff with his sleeve and muttering as he did so.

"Sorry, babe. I'm gonna fix you up right after I kick the ass of whoever did that."

As he gingerly set the repulsor down Tony's phone buzzed. It was Steve. Tony answered it as he walked towards the elevator.

"No it wasn't me."

From the other side Tony heard Steve sigh with exasperation.

"Okay. Well, I'm with Clint and Nat and it wasn't us."

"I have a feeling I know who's fault it is, but can you check up with Thor and Bruce just to make sure? What are you guys doing anyway?"

"Netflix. But, yeah, I can check with them."

The line dropped as Tony stepped into the elevator. A few long moments of silence later his phone buzzed, Steve again, this time a text.

 _Wasn't them either. Good luck._

Tony groaned, he'd been putting off confronting Loki about his obsession for months.

Ever since Loki had discovered the yellow gem at the core of his scepter he'd been little more than a recluse. At first Tony had hoped that Loki would figure it out quickly and things could go back to as close to normal as their lives got, but as the weeks had turned into months the situation seemed to have no end in sight. And Loki's fidgeting, ticks that had started as minor, mostly unnoticeable, had become topic of many a quiet, unsettled conversation.

Whenever confronted, be it by a very concerned Thor or a diplomatic Natasha, Loki had merely brushed off the accusations. Usually before secluding himself for another few days before the need for food drove him to whatever meal pleased him.

At this point Tony was at the end of his rope, he had promised Loki not to tell anyone about the gem, but he had never thought it would get this bad.

He now stood outside of Loki's door. With a deep breath he sucked in all of his concerns and banged his fist on the door, adopting a less somber tone than his thoughts.

"Stop blowing up my building, asshole! I'm opening this door and if I find a crater in my floor _again-_ "

Tony walked in to find Loki grinning at him, room seemingly flawless, though the faint smell of singed cloth was unmistakable. Tony's eyes were instantly drawn to the glowing stone, floating bubbled in the middle of the room.

Likely picking up on his distaste for the object, Loki stepped between it and Tony; easy grin gone, practically bristling.

"I fixed what I broke and it won't happen again. You can go back to whatever you were doing."

Digging his heels in, Tony didn't move, a low hum in his ears he barely noticed as he became immediately frustrated with Loki's standoffishness.

"No, I can't leave, we _need_ to talk about this."

"Tony, I still have such a limited understanding of this thing. I do know, however, that it's clearly an incredibly volatile object. I'm simply trying to learn more about it to keep us sa-"

Anger flared inside Tony.

"No! Don't pull that shit! You're not "helping us", you're obsessed… you're… _addicted_ to this thing! You're not thinking of anyone _but yourself_! Hell, you're not even thinking of yourself, you look terrible!"

For a quick second Loki drew back, appearing surprised by the intensity in Tony's voice. Though he quickly beared down on Tony, anger redoubled.

"You have no _idea_ what you're talking about! _You_ haven't felt its power! Yet you stand here and accuse me of _obsessing-_ "

"Because you are!"

"-over this gem! You come into my room and-"

Tony scoffed, cutting Loki off again.

"It's _my_ building, _I_ let you live here!"

The Trickster bared his teeth, towering over Tony. The air crackled, the temperature dropped.

"I could leave!"

Tony was about to snap back a reply when something in his brain jerked to awareness.

This situation… this anger, it all felt oddly familiar. Why was he so angry? This is not how he wanted this to go. Of course he didn't want Loki to leave, what was wrong with him? Why couldn't he think straight? What was that buzzing in his ears?

He hastily backed off, attempting to diffuse the situation.

"No! No-I- stay! Loki, I'm… we'll talk about this later."

He scrambled from the room, leaving the god still angry behind him.

The door closed and Tony slumped down in the hallway as his thoughts began to clear. He _had_ felt like that before, when he was arguing with Fury and the others years ago, before they were officially the Avengers, on that doomed helicarrier, in the presence of the scepter.

"It's that damn gem, I'm such an idiot, of course it's that thing."

It it could mess with his head after only minimal exposure and the slightest provocation it was no wonder Loki was so changed. He was exposed to it for months, with direct contact.

"How could I have forgotten about that? I've- I've got to tell someone."

* * *

 **AN: I've been laughing about the title to this fic since I thought it up two weeks ago. I'm posting the second chapter right away so there's nothing else to say except I love this title.**


	2. Chapter 2

Loki glared daggers at the back of Tony's head as he hurried from the room. Once Tony was gone he huffed and sat down on the edge of his bed, eye's slowly rising to the floating gem.

It captivated his gaze until a familiar cold presence pressed against his mind. With a sigh he directed the bubbled stone to his bedside table and turned to the large tapestry just above it.

"What is it, mine daughter?"

Hel's disapproving presence rivaled Tony's; and Loki grit his teeth as her words filled his head.

" _Your friend has a point, father, even if he lacks the eloquence to express it properly. I personally believe you should take some time away from this gem. You know it can corrupt minds."_

"I did, just the other day. And it surely can interfere with weaker minds, such as those of Midgardians- that is why I am solely protecting it- them- _from_ it. Why they cannot understand is beyond me. "

" _Do you truly know that? Again, I believe you need to distance yourself from it, for more than a mere twelve hours as you did the other day."_

His hand tapped a-rhythmically against his sheets. A grin slowly spread across his face.

"Well, there was something I've been meaning to make time to do. That would get me away for a day or so... Would that appease you?"

He could feel Hel probing his mind, clearly suspicious at his sudden change of heart. However, he kept his thoughts closely guarded and she eventually backed off, disapproval even more clear.

" _In theory. Perhaps not in practice"_

"Dispel your worries, I'll be fine."

" _Father, do be careful, and please rethink whatever you are planning."_

As her presence retreated from his mind, Loki's gaze turned to the city as he allowed himself a moment of quiet. Though in the moment he noticed a steady hum thats origin he couldn't seem to place.

Still irritated and ruminating on his arguement with Tony; Loki fiddled with the enchantments around the gem, checking the protective spells he had been working on before he had been so rudely interrupted.

Satisfied with the spellwork, Loki snapped his fingers, changing into his Asgardian gear.

He stood, gazing at the city before shaking his head and focusing on where he wanted to appear. His molecules began to shift and his vision went dark.

 **00000**

"Hey, Thor, can I talk to you for a second?"

Tony bounced his hand off his thigh, working off nervous energy, standing in the doorway of the blonde god's room.

"Of course."

Thor put aside the laptop he was using, a piece of technology that Tony thought just looked out of place with the god, and beckoned Tony to sit in the chair opposite him.

As Tony crossed the room he took a good look around, he'd never really been inside Thor's room before.

Similar to Loki's; much of the furniture was clearly Asgardian, though compared to Loki's cool colors and dark wood Thor favored warmer colors and lighter wood. The warm colors combined with the sunlight pouring in from the windows made the room practically glow. Mjolnir rested upon a stack of what looked like newspaper beside a desk. Part of one wall was covered in pictures, Tony recognized Jane and Darcy in some of them, others he recognized as group pictures of the team at parties.

Despite the situation, the pictures brought a faint smile to Tony's face.

When he sat; Thor prompted him further, clearly curious as to why he was here.

"What is it you wish to speak to me about?"

"So, you know how Loki's been confining himself in his room since Allan?"

Thor raised his eyebrows, leaning forward slightly in his seat.

"Obviously, it's rather hard to miss."

"Err- yeah, well, before it started Loki told me not to tell anyone but… he found this yellow stone inside his scepter. Y'know how we found it broken? And he's been messing with it ever since, he's obsessed."

Tony had trouble meeting Thor's gaze, opting to watch his hand bounce against his leg with increasing rapidity.

"A yellow stone… You are telling me this now because…?"

"Because remember before New York, on the helicarrier, right before everything went to shit?"

The god nodded and spoke, the intensity in his eyes only made Tony feel more guilty and he looked away again.

"Indeed. You speak of when we were arguing, correct?"

"Yes! And the scepter was there and we were getting out of hand, it was screwing with our brains, turning us even more against each other!"

When Thor didn't respond Tony looked up.

Thor had his eyes closed, brow furrowed, scowling. When he did speak he did so without looking at Tony.

"You kept the knowledge of this clearly dangerous gem from us?"

"I forgot about- wait, why did you say gem, you haven't even seen it, how-"

"It's something called an Infinity Gem… After New York I brought Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard and the All-Father told me of objects by that name. Objects so powerful and forbidden that their existence has been purposely hidden from most, for fear of them falling into the wrong hands. One is the power source of the Tesseract, I suspect this yellow stone you speak of is one of them as well. It makes sense for whoever sent Loki to retrieve the Tesseract would send him with a powerful tool to achieve that goal. Although I hadn't considered it until now."

Listening with growing horror, Tony stopped his nervous shifting, transfixed by Thor's rough tone. He spoke up after a few seconds of stunned silence.

"You know what these things are? And… Loki doesn't?"

Annoyance flashed across Thor's face for a fraction of a second, before returning to a grave sternness.

" _Yes_ , I'm almost entirely certain. I did not know about them until after New York and I doubt Loki's old allies told him the true power of the weapon he was given."

"If it is an… Infinity Gem- then we really need to do something about it quickly, right?"

Thor stood, striding wordlessly to the door. He only stopped when he noticed Tony wasn't following.

"You did _just_ say we should confront Loki about this now, did you not?"

" _Absolutely,_ but… I was just talking to Loki and I sort of pissed him off, it didn't help that the gem was screwing with us either… So, just fair warning."

Another spike of guilt skewered Tony as he recalled the argument to Thor on the elevator.

Picking up on Tony's tone of voice, Thor placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You cannot take all you said as your thoughts alone, you must remember the gem's influence."

"Right, sure."

To dispel Thor's concerns Tony straightened his back and released the tension he'd been keeping in his shoulders, attempting to be more conscious of how he acted. Tony knew he had just dumped a huge amount of worry on Thor, they needed to focus on the source of the problem right now, he could deal with his own problems later.

They now approached Loki's door. Tony was about to mention how they such subtly go about this as Thor strode ahead, barging through the door and exclaiming loudly.

"Brother we must- _Brother_?"

As Tony entered the room he was met with a puzzled Thor standing alone. The blonde god turned back to him, confused and concerned.

"I do not believe he is here."

Tony's heart skipped a beat and his breath hitched in his throat. His shoddy attempts at ignoring the nagging worries in his mind; fell away. He leaned heavily against the wall, gritting his teeth and attempting to pull himself together.

" _No…_ this is my fault, _this is my fault._ "

Thor's voice cut through the haze of panic that had suddenly choked him.

"Anthony, _Tony_! The gem is still here, I am sure he hasn't left for good! _Anthony_!"

Thor's hand entered Tony's vision and he waved it away, breathing still unsteady.

If the gem was still here then of course Loki couldn't have left forever. Tony told himself he was just being unreasonable. He needed to pull himself together, that was all.

That damn humming was back.

"Gimme- gimme a minute, I'll be fine, just fine. _Just-_ just a minute."

He felt Thor back off. What followed was a long few minutes of increasingly stifling silence, as Thor clearly wanted to respect his wishes but paced back and forth, obviously anxious as well. When Tony did push himself off the wall Thor almost immediately turned to point at the bubbled yellow gem and began speaking.

"I do believe that matches the description I was given of one of the Infinity Gems, the Mind Gem to be exact. And knowing the affect it has, I have no doubts it is that indeed."

Thor approached the bubble reaching out for it. Leaping forward to stop him, Tony hastily attempted, and failed, to pull his arm away.

"Wait, Thor! It could be rigged or something!"

Chuckling, Thor looked at him self-assuredly.

"Certainly, but any protective spells around it surely wouldn't hurt me too greatly. It's not as if Loki would want to kill you, or any other Midgardians who might come in contact with it. _I_ should be fine. Though… back up just in case."

Tony grimaced but did as he said and took a few steps backwards, glancing at the tapestry above Loki's bed, noting the eye of Jormungandr watching him. He shivered and turned back just in time to see Thor's hand come in contact with the shimmering bubble.

There was a sound like a gunshot and thick smoke burst from the still intact bubble. Thor was thrown across the room with enough force that he stayed ahead of the smoke cloud. His momentum carried him through the window with a great shattering noise.

" _Holy shit, Thor!_ "

Shocked, Tony ran over to the window, only to be stopped by the smoke cloud. The heaviness of the smoke in his lungs in combination with the roaring of the wind from outside practically stopped him in his tracks as he bent over, coughing and trying to cover his mouth with his shirt.

He fumbled through the smog and from somewhere behind him heard a thud and felt something whiz past him, followed a second later by a floor shaking crash from back where the thud had come from. Frustrated, Tony shouted through the commotion.

"Jarvis, get rid of this stuff!"

A mechanical whirr added to the chaos but did almost immediately make an impact on the heavy smoke.

The figure of Thor appeared in the window, through the thinning smog, Mjolnir in his off hand. Thor strode towards him, displeasure clear in both his raised voice and crumpled brow.

"I was, perhaps, a _mite_ too confident…"

" _You think_? Are you alright?"

Tony frowned at Thor's dominant hand, which looked covered in scorch marks and burns.

Noticing his concern, Thor held up his bad hand, flexing it.

"Oh, yes I shall be fine, they will heal. They're only skin deep, I believe."

Feeling just slightly more reassured, Tony turned around to look for the source of the loud thud. The sliding metal door to the room was flat on the ground, clearly pushed out of its frame by the force of Mjolnir.

"Uugh… I don't have the energy to deal with this right now."

Just as he looked back to Thor; the voice of Jarvis spoke.

"Sirs, there seems to be an incident that S.H.I.E.L.D. has called for your assistance with. Captain Rogers wished that I inform you as, in his words; "you're probably having fun blowing things up but Fury requested all of us"."

Suppressing a groan, Tony exchanged a concerned look with Thor; who nodded solemnly.

"Alright, Jarvis, tell him we'll get down there. Also can you get some maintenance guy to fix… wait no nevermind, we can't let some rando into Loki's room, especially right now. But we can't just leave the broken window or the door. I- I don't-"

"I will deal with it, sir, you needn't worry yourself more."

Feeling more thankful for Jarvis than ever, Tony smiled softly as he began to walk out of the mostly wrecked room.

"Thanks, Jarvis, I owe you."

* * *

 **AN: Alright first two chapters are out. I'm not sure how regular these updates will be because I'm heading to college in a few days and I'm not entirely sure how much free time I'll have. But I always seem to come back, even if it takes two years. How do you like these first two chapters, I'd love to hear feedback, it really encourages me to write.**


	3. Chapter 3

"This is gonna sound bad but, a hostage crisis, seriously? Doesn't S.H.I.E.L.D. have people to deal with that? People that aren't _us_?"

Tony looked over the floor plan of the captured building as Clint piloted the Quinjet to its destination. A disapproving sigh alerted him to Steve, who was watching him.

"You're right, that did sound bad. I get that you're worried; but Loki can take care of himself, and Fury said it was a pretty standard mission. He just wants us because of the importance of the diplomates taken hostage, so that nothing goes wrong."

"Oh, yeah, because nothing _ever_ goes wrong when we're involved."

Steve fell quiet, nothing but the whirr of the Quinjet filled the air.

It was Bruce who broke the silence.

"I'm addressing the elephant in the room. What was the explosion we heard and why, Thor, is your hand burnt? And _where_ is Loki?"

Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Tony looked to Thor for back-up.

The god picked up the slack.

"I shall attempt to… paraphrase; however it may be more appropriate to speak on this when we can all give our full attention. It is rather… well, truthfully, I have not fully grasped the situation yet either."

Quiet surprise rippled through the group at Thor's hesitant uncertainty. From that surprise came an utterly attentive flight, as the team listened to Thor carefully tell what he knew about both the Infinity Gems and the probable effects of the Mind Gem.

Tony watched as the team reacted to the news.

From Steve turning away, beginning to pace the short stretch of the Quinjet, to Natasha's closed eyes and dipped head, to Clint; sitting in the pilot's seat, but whose shoulders were obviously tensed. Bruce put his head in his hands.

A long silence smothered the jet as Thor finished. Tony broke it, speaking bluntly.

"So, you can see why we weren't exactly _thrilled_ to go on some random mission right now."

Still pacing, Steve acknowledged him.

"We still need to do this mission, people's lives are at stake. But- yes, we'll definitely have to deal with this… somehow."

Clint's voice cut in from the front of the jet.

"We're above the drop location, Cap."

The team focused on Steve as he shook his head and stopped pacing, drawing in a breath.

"Alright, team, let's get this done quick and easy. Bruce; you stay up here with Clint, monitor the situation, only come down if things are going sideways. Tony, Thor; you saw the possible hostage locations Fury gave us, hit them there first and secure the hostages. Nat and I will parachute down and take out any other hostiles. The whole city is on lockdown, if any hostiles attempt to escape; S.H.I.E.L.D. is waiting just outside the perimeter of the embassy."

Tony nodded and looked to Thor, who returned the gesture.

"I'll take the room in the top floor, you get the basement."

Leaning back in his chair, Tony tapped out the suit protocol code onto the chair's control panel and braced himself as the chair began to shift backwards. His suit came over him and he ejected from the plane, letting himself fall without propulsion to avoid detection from below.

As Tony watched the darkened building, surrounded by blockades and what he had to assume were S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles, approach, he saw the figure of Thor fly past him.

He engaged his propulsors and spun to land on his feet, bracing to crash through the ceiling of the embassy.

Concrete crumbled around him as shocked exclamations sprung out of everyone in the room.

His targeting system quickly identifying those holding guns, Tony fired off stunning shots, taking down the hijackers before they could even raise their weapons.

"Everybody stay calm. Your white knight is here."

Tony eyed the small group of shocked diplomats. He swiftly made his way to uncuff them. And, in turn, grouped the unconscious invaders together with the same cuffs, welding the cuffs together with his repulsors.

"Don't worry, everything is under control."

Distant gunshots spooked the newly freed diplomats, a few of whom whimpered.

Moving to the window, Tony focused on the dark figure of Natasha taking down someone with her Widow Bites.

Reassured, Tony turned his attention inwards, speaking only to Jarvis.

"Did you take care of the window situation back at the tower?"

"To the best of my abilities, sir."

"You're a lifesaver, Jarvis. I can't say that enough."

"It's simply my job, sir."

 **00000**

Much to the relief of the team; the mission finished without a hitch and they were able to skirt around Director Fury's prying questions, though they all agreed he'd have to know at some point, once they knew more.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem like it was going to be any time soon. All of their attempts over the past week at manipulating the orb around the gem resulted in Tony having to build and fortify a containment area around the orb to avoid blowing something up every time they tried to fiddle with it. They made sure to be careful not to spend too much time around it to avoid being influenced by its presence.

An incomplete blueprint sat in front of Tony. He stared tiredly at the rough sketches and glanced at the pile of crumpled failed blueprints. Nothing he tried worked, it wasn't a welcome phenomenon.

The week-long absence of an unstable Loki weighed heavily on his mind. On one hand; Tony held out hope that perhaps Loki had come to his senses and maybe gone to "detox" himself from the gem's influence. On the other hand; Tony knew that was a long shot, Loki had seemed pretty close to jumping right off the deep end head first the last time they'd spoke.

Tony just wished Loki had left them some idea of where he-

"Son of a _bitch_ , I'm a dumbass."

He sprung from his seat, startling Bruce, who whipped around to look at him; almost losing his glasses.

"What?!"

Tony shook his head, silently berating himself.

"I've been ignoring- stay here I'm gonna get Thor."

Minutes later Tony and the blonde god exited the elevator to Loki's floor.

"Thor, why can't _you_ talk to Hel, she's less likely to… I don't know- _smite_ you, or something."

"She would not smite you, that's very disrespectful. And she has deemed you someone worth speaking to on previous occasions, so…"

"You're just scared to talk to her."

Thor threw him an offended look as the door to Loki's room slid open.

" _I am not_ -"

Tony flung his arm out to alert Thor to the unexpected figure of Loki lounging on his bed, engrossed in a book.

A mix of relief and apprehension flowed over Tony as he slowly stepped towards the dark haired god, who had either not noticed them, or was purposely ignoring them. Suddenly unsure of what to do, Tony stumbled over his words.

"Uhh… hey, Loki? We- um-"

Loki looked up from his book, he snapped it shut and held a finger to quiet Tony.

"Just a minute, I'm… busy."

" _What_? This isn't-"

A shimmer of green light cut Tony off as a second Loki appeared in the room, tucking something into the neck of his loose flowing shirt. The Loki on the bed flickered out of existence with a strange blue glow. The book fell to the bed.

The remaining Loki grinned at them.

"Hello."

Much to Tony's surprise; Loki's exhaustion seemed to have vanished along with his hunched posture. Though his right hand still tapped against his thigh arrhythmically.

Just as Tony opened his mouth to retort; Thor barreled past him.

To avoid his larger brother, Loki stepped to the side.

Quickly. Too quickly.

The simple movement unsettled Tony. He tried to shake it off, blaming it on him blinking weird, but the feeling didn't leave, even as Thor began to berate Loki.

" _Brother_ , where have you been! And that gem, do you have any idea what you are dealing with?! Keeping that thing a secret from us was incredibly reckless!"

Loki took another step away, this time nothing felt strange about it to Tony, and held his hands up defensively. Tony watched suspiciously as Loki glanced, warily, between his furious brother and the encapsulated golden gem.

"What is wrong with you? I am allowed to do as I please, I wasn't aware I had to report my every action to you. Although... "

The dark haired god paused, his shifting gaze settling on Thor, his voice now curious.

"... what _am_ I dealing with; exactly, dear brother? _Do tell_."

Taking initiative, Tony stepped in between the gods.

" _How about_ ; we talk about this _not_ in the vicinity of that gem."

Loki rolled his eyes, but consented without argument. Much to Tony's surprise.

Seconds later Loki's hand was on his shoulder and Tony's vision dissolved.

Tony heard the startled yelps of his friends before he could see again. When he could, he pulled away from Loki, shuddering.

"Next time; warn me when you're going to rearrange my organs."

He got no response from Loki, who swept silently to an open lounger, ignoring the concerned murmurs of the others. Loki's intense eyes hardly left Thor, impatient curiosity blazing deep within them. His slim fingers tapped impatiently against his crossed arms.

When no one spoke; Loki sighed, beginning to tap his foot to the same rhythm as his fingers.

"Whatever it is you wished to tell me was clearly of great urgency. To loosen your tongues, I'll tell you all where I was the last week. _Once_ you tell me what exactly that gem is, of course."

Reigning in an annoyed grumble, Tony moved to sprawl across a couch, knowing they weren't going to get anything out of the stubborn Trickster until they met his request.

"Let me call Bruce up here first."

What followed was a few minutes of dropped topics as Loki ignored any questions sent his way, his intense green eyes watching Thor's every move. Statue-esque save for his constantly moving fingers. When, at last, Bruce entered and hurriedly found a seat, Thor started speaking. Though Tony noticed some hesitation in his voice.

"If you had only told us earlier, I could have told you what it is long before any negative side effects manifested… It's something called the "Mind Gem", one of six-"

"-Infinity Gems."

Loki cut his brother off, much to the surprise of Thor, and closed his eyes, face unreadable.

"I had suspected as much within the first few weeks. And, yes, brother, I do have some knowledge of the elusive Gems… You don't spend a year in the void between worlds and _not_ learn of their existence from someone. You can skip the explanation of what they are,I know that and I know the Mind Gem can manipulate lesser minds-."

Anger rose in Tony's chest and he straightened in his seat.

"You _knew_ how dangerous that thing was and only told me part of it? You put that on _me_ , you dick! _For months_ I worried about you killing yourself with that thing, or going crazy, or disappearing forever, but I thought " _maybe I'm overreacting_ ", good to know I wasn't. You lied to me, to the people who _care_ about you, because you were too selfish to give this new power up."

In response to his scathing words; Loki stood in single a fluid motion, eyes now open and filled with defensive anger.

"I told you I had limited understanding of the gem, which was true! How could I know if you would reasonably react the knowledge of what it was! I-"

"Don't give me that bullshit about " _protecting us"_ again! We try trust you, you should try to trust us, that's what a _team_ does!"

Propelled by his building emotions, Tony lept up and approached the god, who, as he did, fell into a stone cold expression, his voice settling into an almost monotone.

"Fine, you want me to trust you? I'll place the Mind Gem in a safe place of your choosing, it'll stay there indefinitely. I just want to know more about it. How does that sound?"

Processing Loki's words, Tony stopped mid stride.

"Wha- Just like that?"

"If it will get you to stop accusing me like this, yes."

Loki turned away curtly from Tony and looked back to Thor.

"So please, Thor, go on."

 **00000**

After Thor''s subsequent explanation and some deliberation, the team decided the Gem was safest in the hands of someone it couldn't manipulate. It would be placed on one of the unused floors, which could be sealed off by Jarvis. Monitored by scanners and protected by a less volatile form of Loki's protective bubble.

Natasha had brought up something else too, much to the ire of Loki.

A rudimentary tracker bracelet, to be worn by the god.

"Look, Loki, a week ago you wouldn't part with the thing. It's just a precaution, I know you don't want to but work with us."

" _Ridiculous…_ "

"C'mon, we already have the tech and something fitted for you that should do the job- Tony'll just need to modify it so it won't shock you when you try to move."

"Excuse me?"

Natasha had waved her hand dismissively.

"It's from a while ago, I just kept it… better to be safe than sorry, right? Don't take it personally."

The modification had been easy for Tony, though he had some qualms about the morality of its original intention. It had taken less than an hour to strip and re-assemble the bracelet.

Now, as they lounged around, a weight lifted from the group as the Gem was securely stored away, Loki absent-mindedly twisted the tight contraption around his wrist. Tony noticed how it pulled at the god's skin.

"I can loosen that thing, if you want."

Loki didn't reply immediately, it was only after Tony snapped his fingers in front of the god's face that he responded, annoyance in his voice.

"Oh no, it's _fine_."

"…Suit yourself."

Taking advantage of this lapse of silence, Steve cleared his throat and spoke.

"Alright Loki, you said you'd tell us what you were doing for the last week."

Frustration flashed across Loki's face and he took a deep breath.

"I took a break from the Gem, a personal vacation of sorts."

Clint threw a skeptical look at the dark haired god.

"Just like that? You can't stand to part from the thing and you suddenly just… take a break?"

"I had an outside opinion on the matter."

Loki spoke quickly and curtly, staring forward.

"Okay… sure… but where did you go?"

"A few of my favorite meditation spots."

The uncooperative nature of Loki's answers didn't inspire much confidence in Tony and he could tell the other's felt the same. He could feel that this wasn't over, something was going to come back to bite them, something always did.

Tony just had to attempt to believe that it wouldn't be the silent Trickster sitting to his left.

* * *

 **AN: Time moves fast, this took a while. It'll probably take a while for the next chapter to come out as well, now that college is in full swing. Leave feedback if you want, it helps.**


	4. Chapter 4

The next few weeks passed in a blur for Loki.

The team attended party after party (Tony's idea), crossing the world almost daily. Loki assumed the endless barrage was to get all their minds off the gem locked away in their home.

A numbing routine soon developed.

Preparing, embellishing suits with accessories, scarves, whatever fit the fluctuating weather as they traveled. Straightening ties, smiling at powerful donors to Stark Industries, and ignoring tabloid reporters hovering outside the events like vultures looking for the latest rumor to spin about the world's most unique, dysfunctional family.

Once inside whatever venue the swirl of greeters, rich puffed CEOs in companies Loki couldn't bring himself to care about but smiled at anyway, younger interns who nervously asked for a picture or autograph, anyone in between. Losing the team in the crowd, spotting them occasionally, smiling stiffly, or loosely at someone he didn't recognize. The efforts he made to not lose Tony after a troubling pattern began to develop.

The alcohol, he counted each one of Tony's drinks, quietly turning away servers when his friend began to sway. Fear eating away at him as he gripped Tony's arm, keeping both of them present, and Tony steady. Fear that this was likely his own fault.

Afterwards, the difficult extraction of the team, packing hurriedly into a sleek black bulletproof van with hurried, tired, goodbyes and continued avoidance of the paparazzi's cameras. Loki always gripped Tony tightest, kept him most upright, when cameras were nearby. The muted ride back, sloppy, slow conversations that betrayed exhaustion. The trek from the car back to whatever place they stayed for the day, a nice hotel or one of Tony's many properties.

Much later, sitting on a bed that was not his own. Knowing that within seconds that he could return to his bed in the Tower, knowing that was not the point of this. Wondering if they were punishing him, if this was one big prank, that they would pull the wool from his eyes and say they taught him a lesson about not trusting your teammates. Wondering how he could miss the point so spectacularly. Fingers tracing the golden encasing he had molded around the Space Gem that he wore around his neck. Guilt, knowing he should tell them, he wanted to tell them when the time was right.

Telling himself that it would be fine, that the Space Gem was not like its counterpart. He had stolen it away because it wasn't safe on Asgard, but it was safe with him, he continued to convince himself of that. He could master it, unlike the Mind Gem, which scared the rest of the team, he could master this one's power for their needs without worry.

His fears that they would not understand. Knowing that every day he waited he made it harder, made them less likely to believe him, made it more likely that someone on Asgard would realize he had replaced the now shattered Tesseract with a duplicate.

The situation made him sick to his stomach. But he deserved it, he had brought it upon himself.

 **00000**

Whirlwind nights had defined Tony's youth; sad ones, angry ones, the occasional happy ones, he had experienced them all. He knew what he was doing to himself, he was the resident expert at drowning his feelings in expensive liquor. The stress mounted and the vodka tasted better with every sip.

The worries that Loki was still accessing the Mind Gem, that it had permanently affected him, affected all of them. The fear that he could lose his weird little family unit because of some stupid alien stone.

In each drink was a way to forget the fears a little more. Nights devolved into a haze, but he always woke up in a bed he belonged in, safe, if nauseous, and with half remembered memories of the night before. He never asked, he knew how it looked, he saw the glances Steve gave him when they first encountered each other in the morning, or sometimes afternoon, especially if he already toted a half finished glass of whiskey. He never questioned how he ended up safe in bed, in pajamas that he often didn't knew he owned, it was another worry he didn't want to have to drown.

The distance in Loki's eyes, it scared him the most. His worries that it was connected to something more than the gem. Even though Thor and some modicum of his own common sense told him that they had done the right thing, part of him worried that they had torn the addictive gem away from his friend too quickly and in doing so had destroyed something that had been there before. Fears that one day Loki would just up and disappear and that their team, his family, would crumble.

He didn't want to sit with his worries, so he drank until he lost count of each glass.

* * *

 **AN: Split a long chapter into two, next part going up soon as long as my internet cooperates.**


	5. Chapter 5

Loki jerked awake, back stiff.

The over soft bed made it difficult for him to get up, but he managed. He glanced at the time; just past two in the morning. Restless and unusually awake, he threw on soft clothes and wrapped a scarf partially around his face. Intent on doing something about his restlessness.

Navigating the unfamiliar mansion turned out to be more frustrating than anticipated. By the time he made it outside he was hot and annoyed but the crisp night air tempered his anger. He took a moment to recall where they were today. It wasn't Berlin, they had stayed in a hotel there. Wasn't Austin, it had still been warm there.

With an irritated "tsk" he realized he could just check his phone.

No location available.

" _Ugh_ , unreliable Midgardian technology."

Dark pine forests stretched out around the mansion. He felt trapped in by some great unknown force.

Experiencing a moment of weakness, his longing to get away from the team for a few hours overcame him and he closed his eyes, stuffed away his guilt, and felt his body shift.

He opened his eyes and stood on the streets of New York. Resoutly ignoring the lights of the Tower in the distance, he hiked up his scarf and tousled his hair to better cover his face and began to wander the streets.

In a way the city reminded him of the market streets of Asgard, dirtier, lit by a harsher light, but the spirit was similar.

He spent the next few hours roaming, gazing at neon signs, people watching the kind of rabble he expected to find in the streets past midnight. The weight of the Infinity Gem ever present around his neck.

Around four he noticed a man begin to follow him. Rolling his eyes Loki continued walking but conjured a knife that he gripped tightly. As he expected he heard the man approach him not long after.

The man sped up and jostled past him, Loki felt the thief's hand grab at his phone in his pocket. The pickpocketer murmured a fake, hasty apology as he snatched the phone.

"Oop- sorry."

Loki rolled his eyes again, and caught the thief's arm with a disapproving frown. His knife disappearing as he realized the man was no real threat.

"That was disgraceful and not at all discreet."

Tightening his grip, Loki let the man jerk himself back in an attempt to get away. Bones crunched in the pickpocket's wrist, he dropped the phone and let out a cry.

" _Aaaugh_ \- My fucking wrist!"

Pulling the struggling thief closer, Loki glared at him.

"If you're going to pickpocket someone you do it in the middle of a crowd, idiot. And get better at picking targets because you've been tailing me for a while now and you still managed to size me up incorrectly. You are a pathetic excuse for a thief, _whelp_."

Loki released the man, who stumbled back onto the dropped phone, with a "crunch" of glass. The failed pickpocket took off running, cradling his broken wrist.

Satisfied, Loki turned away from the shrinking figure to check on his phone. Shattered glass surrounding it betrayed its condition before he could even flip it over. Sure enough, the screen was completely ruined, it wouldn't even turn on. Loki scowled and pocketed the wrecked phone to throw away later.

Shaking off the encounter, Loki continued his roaming, letting his mind settle, not thinking about the stressors waiting for him back among the team. His thoughts kept returning to the charity gala later that day, to watching Tony drink himself into incoherence once again. The image haunted him and he spent some time purging it from his thoughts, putting off his worries for later.

By the time his favorite coffee shop opened he had settled back into a meditative like calm and it had begun to sleet, rain and ice collecting on his outer jacket in an unpleasant mush. With a quick few changes to his appearance he slipped into the softly lit coffee house, shaking off the accumulation of ice and unwrapping his scarf. He ordered and sat peacefully for a while.

When the time came that Loki knew he should return he hesitated. Ever since he was a child he had hated fulfilling social obligations that were not of his own planning, it had always taken some bartering with his mother or Thor to get him to reliably make an appearance. And those parties had alcohol that would actually let him ignore how dull the company was.

The weight of the Space Gem pressed against his chest.

He stared out the frosted window, hand hovering over his chest, weighing his options.

It wasn't the first time he'd thought to use the Gem to at least partially avoid the team on their hellish "vacation". He knew it could be done, he'd only not done it to not aggrieve his own conscience.

"I _am_ already away… and it is still me…"

He shook the idea off for now, though he let it linger in his thoughts for another instance. Knowing full well the time would likely come sooner rather than later.

Paying for his breakfast and rewrapping his scarf, Loki exited the building and slipped into a nearby alleyway, careful to avoid the eyes of the now bustling street. He let the alterations to his appearance fall away and, tapping into the gem to do so as he still had no idea where the mansion was but could see it in his mind, left New York.

It was snowing when he arrived back at the mansion. Light spilled from its many windows and even from afar he could hear raised voices coming from inside.

Loki rolled his eyes and steeled himself.

Steve's voice rang out as Loki paused at the door.

"Tony! _Tony_ , deep breaths. I promise he's not-"

A loud jingle sounded out when Loki opened the front door and the commotion stopped. First Steve, then Thor rushed over to the balcony on the floor above him. Relief washed over both of them and, much to Loki's surprise, Steve vaulted over the railing and began to approach him.

"You."

"Me…?"

The other avengers appeared at the balcony moments afterwords, acting as quiet onlookers.

Steve grabbed Loki's shoulders and looked at him darkly, speaking low.

"Where were you?"

Taking cues from Steve's whispered words, Loki muttered a response, feeling more than a little antagonized.

"I went for a walk, is that illegal?"

With a heavy sigh, Steve glanced back at the other avengers.

" _No_ , it's not. We tried to call you, what happened?"

"I dropped my phone, it shattered."

Loki offered up the mangled phone. Which Steve shook his head at exasperatedly.

"Tony- Tony thought you'd left."

Looking over Steve's shoulder, Loki eyed Tony. Upon a quick inspection Loki noticed Tony's disheveled hair, the stress lines furrowing his forehead, among other things including the anomaly that he was up so early.

"I'll deal with it."

Loki took a deep breath and pushed past Steve, maintaining eye contact with Tony as he ascended the staircase. When he reached Tony he cleared his throat, standing stiffly, hands locked at his side. Ignoring Tony's glare.

"Would you like to talk?"

With a deep scowl, Tony turned sharply away.

"Not right now. I need some more sleep."

"Excuse me?!"

Vaguely insulted, Loki roughly spun Tony around to face him. This turned out to be a miscalculation as Tony swung at him and Loki was forced to roll with the punch to avoid hurting Tony. The intent of the blow jarred Loki more than the impact. He stood in shock as Tony stalked off down a hallway.

 **00000**

Tony slammed the door behind him as hard as he could.

"I said " _later"_ , asshole."

He took a deep, shuddering breath, hoping to calm his thudding heart, he massaged his forehead. Finally he collapsed onto the bed face first. Much to his chagrin, he only had a few moments of silence before his phone buzzed. With a groan he groped for the nuisance.

It was Pepper.

Confusion took over him as he stared at Pepper's name, trying to think why she was calling him.

"Oh yeah… she's coming to this party."

He answered the phone and put it on speaker, laying back down, letting Pepper speak first.

"Tony, you there?"

"Yep."

A long silence, he could practically feel her concern radiating through the phone.

"... Alright, good. I just got off the plane I'll be there in about an hour or so. Are you feeling okay, you don't-"

"Nah, I'm great. See you in an hour."

"Tony-"

He hung up the phone, almost immediately regretting the decision. Realizing he hadn't told the rest of the team Pepper was coming, he silently weighed his options. Reluctant to move from his spot.

 **00000**

Pepper was a welcome help for their preparation. Her presence at least seemed to keep Tony from drinking too much before the event started, though Loki noticed him slip a flask of something into an inner pocket in his suit coat. Despite that everyone was in remarkably high spirits as they stepped into the S.H.I.E.L.D. provided van. Though the scuffle from the morning hadn't entirely been mended as Tony still avoided Loki as best he could.

The presence of Pepper also freed Loki from his moral obligations. Freed him to use the Space Gem.

Once inside the venue he took a quiet moment and split his mind, a physical duplicate of himself appearing in the Tower. He focused on the party, mind split between the bustle of the gala and the quiet of reading in the empty tower.

He was laughing at a joke Natasha made. He was sipping tea, lounging in the dark.

Occasionally he would focus more on one copy than the other, leaving the other copy on a kind of autopilot, though he could always see what the other was doing. The anomaly had taken him weeks to get used to and understand, this was the first time he had tried split his consciousness doing something that required such mental energy on one side.

He spun tales with Thor to onlookers, the two of them sipping champagne and reenacting certain bits with dramatic flairs, he saw the smile in Thor's eyes. He prepared a meal for himself, breaking out his stock of spices he'd almost forgot he'd stored away. He listened to Bruce excitedly answer questions about gamma radiation to a couple of wasted interns, who were eating his words up. He practiced fighting while split in the empty training floor.

Late into the night Pepper got up on a stage to deliver a speech and Loki noticed Tony slip in beside him, very drunk. His friend tugged on his scarf and Loki intoned his head, drawing focus away from the him who was currently meditating.

"Yes, Tony?"

"Hey, _hey_ I'm ready to… to talk, yeah? Y'know, from e-earlier. I wanna-talk…"

"... Very well."

Loki surveyed the room quickly, eyes drawn to the almost deserted patio covered in snow. Grabbing Tony by the arm he maneuvered the two of them outside. He noticed how Tony immediately began to shiver and so took off his outer jacket and scarf and handed them to Tony who frowned at his pale shirt with a look of concern, all while putting on the outer layers with some difficulty.

The intent frown prompted a tired response.

"I am not cold, you should know why."

Tony blinked rapid fire before speaking.

"That's… not- what is…"

A moment of silence filled the air before Tony flicked his eyes up to meet Loki's. He squinted at Loki but whatever thought he was formulating he seemed to drop as he stuck his hands in his pockets.

"I kinda wanna apologize- for earlier but I _reeeally_ don't want to because you kinda deserved it. _Haaha_. So uh, sorry but no not actually!"

With a barely contained eyeroll, Loki dryly replied. Tower Loki stood from his meditation, continuing to barely make a dent in his thought process.

" _Sure,_ that's very gracious of you. But that is not what I care about. I do not care that you punched me, it did nothing, I wanted to talk about what's been brewing within in the team and… something else but not right now. I want to talk when you are _sober_ , Tony. Do you understand?"

Looking offended, Tony crossed his arms.

"Hey- that's not fair and you…"

Tony trailed off, looking past Loki, to inside the building.

"What's goin' on in there? Is… that _a bird_?"

"What?!"

Alarmed, Loki spun around and his heart dropped. A large black raven circled the crowd of shocked people, cawing loudly, a parchment was tied to its ankle.

" _Muninn._ "

Odin's second raven circled the crowd, protesting harshly to their shocked outcries, the scroll attached to its ankle fluttered with each beat of its wings.

Beside him, Tony muttered, oblivious to Loki's panic.

"How'd he get in there…?"

Loki zeroed in on Thor among the crowd and watched, frozen in horror, as Thor reached his arm out and the bird descended. Muninn landed lightly and offered out its ankle.

The world was spinning, Thor was not a fool, it would be obvious that Loki was involved. There was no doubt in his mind that he would need to act fast to avoid maximum damage. But he couldn't move, there was a buzzing in his head and a tingling in his fingers and he couldn't move his legs.

Something else buzzed but Loki continued to think, Thor was untying the parchment. Tony said something that was lost in Loki's mental fog.

After a few moments Tony elbowed him, speaking louder, waving something in front of his face.

"Hey, Antlers! Jus' got an alert from Jarvis. Somethin' wrong at the Tower. Can you… go check….?"

Loki shuddered back to life.

" _The Tower!_ "

His head buzzed, a familiar feeling. He focused on his copy with difficulty, his vision faded from Thor reading the parchment.

The security system around the Mind Gem sent electricity shooting through his body, his fingertips tingled. He was so close it was right there. His head buzzed at fever pitch.

"No! _No,_ what are you- am I-?"

He forcibly pulled away, horrified at how difficult it was to change the path his mind was set on. His head buzzed so loud, so very loud, and the gem was right there… The gem, _that gem_. He had to get away. Still horrified and ashamed he drew back to himself, well aware that time was still passing. He closed his eyes and became of one mind and body again.

Thor was making his way swiftly through the crowd, Muninn no longer on his arm but circling his head. Loki stepped back hurriedly, the cautious, angry glint in Thor's eyes told Loki all he needed to know. He had mere seconds now before Thor would be upon him, now was the time for action. It took all his effort to stop backing up, to straighten and face Thor.

His brother was upon him. Loki glanced at the parchment crumpled in his hand before meeting Thor's eyes.

"Thor, you need to understand-"

"Why, brother, why?"

Here was not the place for this conversation. Loki shifted his gaze to the restless crowd, then to Muninn who cawed at him sharply, a symbol and conduit of Odin's presence. He took action and grabbed Thor by the arm.

"Do not smite me!"

And the two of them disappeared from the courtyard.

* * *

 **AN: Officially the worst at updating. To my defense I had a to write a completely different short story for one of my classes and that took a lot of writing energy but I'm finally back into this. I have this grand plan of going back to my old stories and slowly reformating them so they read like normal stories but if I'm being sincere that's likely not going to happen any time soon. I am working on the next chapter so hopefully it'll be up sometime soonish?**


	6. Chapter 6

They landed on a windy cliff face and Thor pulled out of Loki's grip as Loki took in their surroundings.

Loki immediately put his hands up in a gesture of surrender and waited for Thor to get his bearings. Wind whipped past them, twirling their hair.

Thor glanced around, obviously hesitant to take his eyes off Loki.

"Brother, where are we, is this still Midgard?"

"Yes, it very much is. Do you not recognize it? Us appearing here was unintentional, I just desired to be away from everyone else. It seemed appropriate however, in a twisted way."

With narrowed eyes Thor scrutinized the area, the forest of pines below the dark cliff they stood on, recognition sparking on his face.

" _Oh_."

The soft exclamation echoed an old pain for a moment before frustration overpowered it and Thor focused again on Loki.

"Do not attempt to play games with my mind. What have you done with the Tesseract?"

Very slowly, Loki lowered his hands and with one finger hooked the necklace, pulling it off smoothly and exposing the Space Gem in one fluid motion. It shimmered blue and Loki quickly realized that it must have been what Tony had seen through his shirt. He held out the gem and dropped it onto the dirt between the two of them.

"There is no more Tesseract, brother."

Thor started toward the gem but stopped and stared at it reverently.

"Is that another-"

"Indeed, space. It is what allowed the Tesseract to open the portal to the Chitauri and you to take me home despite the shattering of the Bifrost."

The gem glittered innocently among the rocks. Loki could tell Thor was contemplating summoning Mjolnir, with his hands flexing unconsciously. He spoke to dissuade that undesirable outcome.

"It was not safe on Asgard. When you used it to return me after New York it likely sent out energy signals that could have alerted any life form willing and ready to listen. And, you know the way rumor spreads on Asgard. There is no doubt in my mind that those in the nine realms and even those outside of the realms knew that the Tesseract was held where it was. That being our home, and- Thor, some of those interested parties are not to be meddled with. They'd likely do anything to get this power. _Anything_."

"And what,you insinuate that it is safer in your hands?"

"Ye-"

Loki stopped himself and cleared his throat. His fingers still tingled.

"I am not saying that. But Asgard is safer without it. I… thought I could use it more effectively than the Mind Gem but I may have been foolish to believe that. I stand firm on my other stance, however."

Still clearly on guard, Thor stared Loki down, blue eyes glittering darkly.

"Will you never learn?"

Not willing to be patronized, Loki rolled his eyes, adopting a sarcastic tone and a half hearted smirk.

" _Never_ , learning is not my strong suit, unlike you, of course."

"Brother, do not try to distract me with your jests."

Hearing his voice growing more vicious, Loki held his ground.

"Oh, but I'm all laughs. Thor, this is hilarious it's just-"

Thor snapped under the tension. Mjolnir flew past Loki's head to Thor's hand, rustling his hair, a little too close for comfort. As Thor approached him, brandishing Mjolnir, Loki stopped mid-sentence, watching the silver hammer cautiously. When Thor spoke it was with a serious rumble.

"You act out, endangering everyone, and you try to brush that off? Not around me, brother. That gem was perfectly safe, have you conveniently forgotten our father? He, and his line have kept Asgard safe from many a threat."

"I was able to steal that gem away and it was weeks before anyone noticed their precious prize had been replaced with a fake."

"Because you know every nook and cranny imaginable."

"And how easy would it be to extract that information from some hapless guard? I'm trying to prevent needless loss of life, Thor! And our father is growing old, he is no longer what he once was. What if he was to fall into Odinsleep in a time of crisis, _again_? Unlike _last time_ I would not be the only threat, something far worse could be."

Thor halted his approach, still holding Mjolnir out threateningly.

"You want to prevent loss of life on Asgard, and, what, trade the lives of Asgardians for Midgardians? Is that your thinking, you put the target on Midgard and that is better than Asgard?"

"No! That was not my intention! We must hide it away, no one need know it is here. All that matters is that it is no longer advertised as residing among our treasury."

Brandishing Mjolnir towards the glittering blue gem, Thor frowned at him questioningly.

"What do you intend to do with the thing then? Let it languish in the tower like the Mind Gem?"

With a dry laugh, Loki glanced out across the forest.

"Certainly not there. That's not safe in the slightest. Speaking of, we may need to alter where the Mind Gem is being kept as well."

Thor narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"And why is that?"

"I made a miscalculation. Worry not, 'twas nothing serious."

"Unfortunately, brother, that leads me to assume that something serious did indeed happen."

Suppressing a sigh, Loki danced around the accusatory statement.

"We do not have time for this debate, Thor. We cannot be gone from the party too long, the shock of our departure will soon wear off and people will begin to panic."

"I am more than certain the panic has already begun. It is not as if either of us are easily traceable Midgardians."

"Quite. So, we must take action now and return to dissuade their fears."

Clearly annoyed, Thor glared at Loki a moment longer before striding toward the space gem and sweeping it up in a single fluid motion and returning to stand in front of Loki.

"Then we must take action. Return the two of us, I will keep this until we can confer with the others on what to do with it… and with you."

"Wha- Oh, so you're treating me like a criminal again, I see."

Slipping the space gem around his neck and tucking it into his shirt, Thor rested a hand on Loki's shoulder.

"I shall stop when you stop acting like one and earn that respect, brother. I can lecture you later, however, what do you have in mind for our entrance."

Setting aside his annoyance and the anxious pit in his stomach, Loki picked up on Thor's badly suppressed humorous tone and smirked.

"How does a small detour sound to you?"

 **00000**

The two gods had been gone for about thirty minutes, according to Steve's phone.

The party had fallen eerily silent, anxious guests milling about in packs being corralled by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that had come out of the woodwork almost as soon as the gods had disappeared, and throwing uncertain glances at the Avengers.

The large black raven that had caused all of this perched firmly on Tony's shoulder, no amount of shooing would intimidate it and Steve wasn't about to make it move if it didn't want to. It had a nasty clever glint in its dark eyes.

Natasha leaned in close, muttering in Steve's ear as she eyed the bird.

"How are we going to handle this situation? What's the chance of them coming back perfectly fine?"

After a moment of thought, he murmured back while looking gravely on as Tony was sat down by Bruce and Clint, bird still steadfastly perched on his shoulder.

"I'm working on that. I do think we need to put a tracker on Loki, though. This is getting ridiculous."

Natasha nodded surprising quickly, leaning against him lightly. Her hand twitched toward her thigh, where Steve knew she always kept a handgun, concealed by her loose flowing dress.

Suddenly a commotion split the tree line.

A great shadowy beast the size of a truck leapt onto the outside pavilion, nearly trampling a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and letting loose a glass shattering roar.

Only momentarily stunned, Steve leapt to action, putting himself between the guests and the unknown beast. Next to him, Natasha trained her pistol on the dark creature, waiting for his signal.

Before he could decide how to handle the monster without any armor or his shield, two other figures appeared between him and the creature. Thor and Loki stood before him, facing the beast, fully decked out in their armor.

Loki turned to face him, throwing him a quick wink before leaping high above the beast, fingertips crackling with green energy.

Thor rushed the creature, swinging Mjolnir, scattering chairs and tables with abandon.

The two gods collided with the monster at the same moment. From above, Loki landed atop the monster, sending green energy arcing across its shadow covered figure. Lightning struck Mjolnir, which Thor directed to strike the creature head on. The combination of the two made the beast howl, breaking any surviving glass in the vicinity and forcing Steve to shield his ears.

The shadow monster pounced on Thor, attempting to shake Loki off its back with a mighty bound. The blonde god disappeared beneath the creature's girth and Loki clung on desperately, continuing to bombard the beast with green magic.

The hair on the back of Steve's neck stood on end and, instinctively, he ducked for cover behind the nearest overturned table, shouting out a warning as he did so.

"Get down!"

Confirming his gut feeling, the last thing he saw before diving behind a table was Loki leaping off of the shadowy beast.

Moments later the night sky split open with a massive boom and what Steve assumed was an impressive bolt of lightning that lit the night sky like daylight.

Silence and stillness followed.

Steve stood from behind his barricade, noticing Natasha had done the same, and assessed the scene cautiously.

Dark shadows seeped slowly back into the woods, the beast was gone. Thor stood where the creature had been, breathing heavily, covered in the shadowy substance but otherwise seemingly fine. Loki dissipated a magical barrier and watched the substance creep back into the woods with a look of satisfaction.

Thor strode over, gripping Steve's shoulder and glancing darkly at the S.H.I.E.L.D. intel that were rapidly taking over the venue.

"We must have a team meeting, it is essential."

Before Steve could reply Loki slung an arm around him and began to speak.

"Preferably away from the prying eyes of those agents… and Muninn."

The raven, having finally left Tony's shoulder, circled their heads. Letting loose caws that echoed through the night.

 **00000**

Much to Loki's annoyance, Muninn followed the van home.

Clint spoke up from the driver's seat as he pulled into the long driveway of Tony's home.

"If you have a raven I'm gonna get a dog."

"Muninn is not a pet- I'd much rather he not be here."

"Yeah… I'm getting a dog."

Choosing to ignore Clint's mutterings, Loki glanced to the backseat, noting the uncomfortable silence that, other than Clint's mumblings, filled the van. Focusing in on the passed out Tony, Loki realized something would have to be done if they were to discuss the gem situation as a team. He cleared his throat pointedly. Beside him; Clint stopped talking.

"I believe there may be some trouble dealing with Tony in his current state. I have something to temporarily relieve the problem that I could… go retrieve…"

He noticed Natasha look over to Steve as he trailed off. Moments later she shook her head and spoke.

"Not alone you're not."

Rolling his eyes, Loki offered his hand out towards her.

"Fine then, if you must, you could accompany me to the tower. I assure you it will not take long to retrieve."

Another glance at Steve, who shrugged and nodded, and she took his hand in a rough grip. He grinned at the remaining company, quietly thankful to get away.

"We shall see you all soon."

And with that the two of them disappeared from the stifling van.

 **00000**

Natasha's feet touched down on soft carpet. Staggering slightly, she found herself in Loki's dimly lit room.

The god freed himself from her grasp and she watched as he hurried to one of his many dark cabinets, not saying a word as he began to root through them.

She stared at the back of his head, eyes narrowed, carefully picking her next words.

"You know S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't happy with how often you disappear without telling anyone."

"How unfortunate for them."

She could practically hear the smug smirk in Loki's voice even though she couldn't see his face.

"I'm being serious. I've already been spoken to at length about reining you in, tracking you, something, anything. And disappearing in the middle of a public gathering _and_ taking Thor with you? That looks bad. They'll want to avoid that in the future. They don't want the two most unpredictable Avengers wandering off without supervision. Even if you did make a good excuse out of that shadow monster or whatever that was."

"Thank you, that beast was actually just a rabbit I cloaked in a little something special. I think it turned out quite well considering it was a quick job. And I would say that the Hulk is a _little_ more unpredictable than the two of us, wouldn't you?"

Loki turned around, inspecting a murky liquid housed in a small glass vial. He looked to her for confirmation of his question.

"Sure, the Hulk might be but Bruce isn't. Point is, this might be the last straw. Loki, they'll want to do something to curtail your movements. They have for years and you just keep giving them excuses to suggest it. From what Fury has disclosed to me the World Security Council just keeps getting more and more antsy about you- and Thor, but mostly you; given your history."

"What about you, what do you think should be done about me?"

Clearly fully serious now, Loki set down the vial and frowned, furrowing his brow.

Taking a moment to compile her thoughts, Natasha met his searching gaze.

"Yes… I think something does need to be done. Steve agrees with me, Loki, you are far too dangerous and unpredictable. It's compromising our team. We need to do something for our safety, and for the safety of the people we are supposed to protect. Too much of what you do flies under the radar, we can never be sure what you're doing and I'm betting whatever you and Thor have to tell us falls into that category as well. Consequences need to be put in place, you can't just do what you want when you want, we have a duty to this world."

"I'm not the only one who disappears. What about you, super spy, what do you not tell the rest of us?"

His frustration radiated off him. Natasha felt a chill in the air as she calmly but cooly replied, determined to keep things civil but unwilling to back down.

"I still answer to somebody. As long as S.H.I.E.L.D. is around I still follow their orders when I do their missions. Our situations are not the same. I don't run around with dangerous super-weapons without telling anyone."

Loki balked, clearly still frustrated. He grabbed the vial from where he had placed it and turned back to his cabinets, muttering too quietly for her to hear.

The following few minutes passed quickly as she watched him search through his apparently vast collection of mysterious concoctions, occasionally questioning him on the contents and effects of some of them. Finally, he procured a silver tinted vial and turned back to her. Speaking curtly.

"This is the one. We can return now."

Offering her hand, she nodded.

"Great, let's go. They're probably waiting for us."

 **00000**

The next few hours were spent on endless questions, many heated arguments and accusations, and few breaks as the team plus Pepper discussed the Space Gem that lay out on the table in front of them.

It was long into the early morning hours when they finally all came to a slightly satisfying solution.

Neither gem was safe in anyone's hands, human or otherwise. Tony would buy a plot of land in some remote location and build a facility to house the two gems, staffed wholly by his AI. The gems would be placed under the tightest security they could manage. Until that facility was built; the gems would simply be stored together in the tower under Jarvis' supervision, but with tighter magical restrictions, courtesy of Loki.

In reaction to Munnin's relentless tapping on the grand windows of Tony's home they concluded telling Asgard about the gems would only further complicate things and it would be best to send a delicately worded message expressing their innocence in the disappearance of the gem.

Late into the conversation, Loki quieted the group and proposed an idea he had been formulating.

"My need a show of force, to let anyone searching for those gems know that Midgard is ready to handle an attack. That _we_ are able to handle ourselves against any threats that could come our way."

A long silence followed, eventually broken by Steve who leaned forward, fixing Loki with a sharp gaze.

"And how do you propose we do that safely?"

Loki grinned

"I know some people, I could easily work out a deal… for the right price. And I'd have to speak to them alone."

Another eruption of arguments ensued. One that didn't end until a tired looking Natasha suggested a compromise, staring directly at Loki as she spoke.

"Alright everyone, how about this: Loki talks to these people- do they have a name or?"

"Ravagers. Mercenaries that work for the highest bidder, from what I've seen and heard they're very reliable as long as you pay them well."

"Right, he talks to these Ravagers by himself. And then, Loki, you need to have some kind of tracker on you. Loki, you will submit to that willingly and give your full cooperation. But you can go talk to these Ravagers before that and get them to help us. One last little excursion for you."

All eyes were on Loki. He grimaced, racing to think of a way out of that end result.

"You do know how difficult it would be to reliably place a tracker of any kind on me?"

Natasha responded quickly and sternly.

"It can be done, though. And S.H.I.E.L.D. is more than likely going to insist on it anyway, you will only make it more difficult on all of us by arguing. You let us, more accurately; Tony, make the tracker and you get more say in what goes down. It's the best deal you're going to get."

"Placing trackers on clothing is not that difficult or hard to design why would you need to create a new-"

"I never said anything about it being on your clothes."

Loki blinked in surprise.

" _What?_ "

"The only way I can think of to be sure, would be to place it under the skin. It gives you an automatic incentive to not try and remove it or tamper with it. Look, we can talk about the specifics later, do you accept the compromise?"

Loki closed his eyes. Unable to find a better alternative on the spot that anyone would agree with he sighed heavily and nodded.

"Fine… Fine I accept."

* * *

 **AN: I'm literally the worst at updating these things. But there's only one chapter left after this and I've started it. So there's something, it might be out in a few weeks or a few months who knows at this point. And I apologize in advance if its the latter. Feedback on the story is much appreciated.**


	7. Chapter 7

Two weeks later and a sense of normalcy had almost returned to the tower.

Tony, relieved to have been given a project to occupy his time has spent hours a day busy designing and perfecting the exact specifications needed to accommodate Loki's differing biology to assure the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents constantly checking up on him that the tracker would do its job, aided, begrudgingly, by Loki himself. He'd even been able to work with some Asgardian metal to ensure reliability.

Now, under the watchful eye of a bald agent Tony was sure he'd seen around before, who had introduced himself as " _Agent Sitwell_ ", the small tracker was injected under the skin of Loki's lower arm.

In an attempt to lighten his friend's mood, Tony elbowed Loki as Sitwell left the room.

"At Least Fury wasn't here to rub it in,yeah?"

Loki glared at the small lump in his arm, scratching hard enough that Tony could see pinpoints of blood welling up on Loki's skin

"Is there a reason the Director was not here?"

Shrugging, Tony whacked Loki's hand away from the tracker.

"Don't scratch. And... I don't know, he's a busy man, y'know. At least we get to have some fun with those Ravagers tomorrow, live a little, kick some ass."

"You have a strange definition of " _living a little"_ , Tony."

"Don't bullshit me, I know you've been waiting for this for weeks."

Tony saw Loki smirk though he sounded vaguely defensive when he spoke.

"I have not! Someone could get hurt. I may have bargained a "no killing" deal but I couldn't haggle "no maiming" out of them."

Arching an eyebrow, Tony responded quickly, eager to learn more about the group.

"Fun. So… what do these Ravager guys do usually? I mean, other than attack people for money."

Loki leapt to a standing position, rolling down his sleeve to cover the tracker while he talked.

"Just about anything. Heard whispers they did something big recently, something that got a lot of attention from a deal of powerful beings, made a statement. Which is wonderful timing for our stunt. Although I didn't hire the whole fleet, just a few ships. Wish I had been able to find out what they did, my contact simply would not tell me… I'll have to do some digging- _oh, wait_ , I'm on too tight a leash now to do such a thing."

Unwilling to indulge Loki's obvious play at sympathy, Tony frowned without a trace of sympathy.

"Sorry pal, thems the rules now."

The agent, Sitwell, entered the room again, eyeing Loki with suspicion. He turned his back to the god, and, much to Tony's discomfort, took his arm in a tight grasp.

"Mr. Stark, thank you for doing this for us. It takes a load off our back, you know. And I must apologize but… there is another thing we would be wondering if you would help us with, a project that we could use your expertise with."

Still uncomfortable, Tony glanced over to Loki, looking for a way out of the situation, who raised his eyebrows unhelpfully.

"Uh… sure, just get Fury to brief me or something…"

Much to Tony's relief, Sitwell let go of his arm and smiled.

"Great, I'll have someone brief you shortly."

 **00000**

It felt strange, knowing everyone would walk away from a mission.

The team lounged around on couches, decked out in their respective gear, save Bruce who had opted out to avoid unnecessary casualties.

Loki stared out at the city, tuning out the conversations going on around him, scratching absentmindedly at the tracker embedded in his arm. Something hit his face and brought him back to awareness. He glanced down at the crumpled paper ball that had stricken him then up to the culprit; Tony, helmet off, looking at him expectantly.

"No. Scratching."

Muttering a few choice words to himself, Loki turned away from Tony. Deigning instead to listen to Steve, who was repeating the guidelines of their deal with the Ravagers.

"No casualties, on either side, that includes civilians. Minimal structural damage. At least six ships coming. We can't totally disable said ships. They have to put up a convincing fight. They can't abduct any citizens or… ugh- or eat anyone… I can't believe we're working with the kind of people where that needs to be a rule."

Loki grinned at Steve's exasperation.

Just then an explosion from some distant place above them rattled the tower.

Tony leapt up, crying out.

"Awh, come on! Why is it always my stuff!?"

As glass and concrete fell past the windows, Steve gave their signal.

"Let's get out there! Loki, stop that rubble!"

Loki nodded and focused on the street below, appearing just in time to slow the debris. Glass clattered harmlessly to the street, concrete chunks gently touched the ground. Around him people cried out in shock, many ran for cover before he could order them to.

Large ships of differing colors hovered above the tower.

A loud voice cut above the city noise, sounding from the lead ship.

"Let's see what you got, jackasses!"

Seconds later the offending ship was engulfed in a hail of bullets as the Quinjet flew into view. The Ravager ships broke formation and Loki watched them spread throughout the city.

Closely pursuing one of them was Tony, who fired off what Loki assumed was a barrage of missiles, which exploded on impact. The ship turned sharply, facing off against Tony, who also came to an abrupt halt.

A spray of bullets cut short Loki's spectating as a different ship beared down on him, flying low to the street and weaving around stopped cars with extreme accuracy. He grinned, summoning two light imitations of himself that took off running in opposite directions down nearby streets. He turned and began to run down the road, taking advantage of the ship's temporary uncertainty. The roar of the Ravager's ship grew closer and he slid on his knees, watching the ship pass over him harmlessly.

Leaping to his feet, Loki smirked as the ship pulled to a halt and turned to make another pass. He began a light jog as the ship revved its engines. With a quick glance to the rooftops above him he prepared himself as the Ravager began to speed up.

From above the Ravager his two light clones jumped from the rooftops. Still running, Loki watched the ship slow and swerve in an attempt to avoid his mirrors. Running up the hood of a car and leaping toward the ship, he dissipated the two doubles and landed lightly on the glass window of the craft.

The two man crew inside locked eyes with him for a moment and he winked at them as he passed. He grabbed onto one of the fins of the ship as it bucked to the side, ignoring how the colored metal dug into his hands. Summoning a fistful of ice, Loki lobbed it into the right engine of the ship, stalling out the rotor blade, forcing the ship to a skidding halt on the street below, clipping a few cars as it did.

Loki flipped off the ship and landed with a crunch of asphalt.

Out from the Ravager craft emerged her crew, one of which Loki recognized, with a small measure of shock, as their blue skinned leader. He spit on the ground, eyes skimming over the damaged rotor before pivoting to face Loki and whistling, the metal fin on his head began to glow.

Before Loki could move, something extremely fast flew from the waist of the Ravager leader and pierced him through the stomach. He doubled over in pain and surprise as he heard the Ravager's boots crunch towards him. Conjuring a knife, Loki swung it towards the leader's legs. The hole in Loki's stomach rendered his swing much weaker than intended and he managed to only partially cut through his opponent's boot.

The Ravager leader spoke in a raspy grumble as he kicked at Loki, landing a solid hit in the stomach.

"You don't mess with my ship like that, boy. I just got her all fixed up again."

Tasting blood in his mouth, Loki rolled away from his assailants kicks, ignoring his screaming wound, and hissed back at him.

"It was just ice… it'll be fine. Was the- the arrow really necessary?"

With a suspicious narrowed eye the Ravager responded, still going through the motions of their struggle but no longer landing any hits.

"If you say so, boy. And I told you, no one messes with Yondu's ship and doesn't pay for it. Even if you did give me that nice new bauble."

Before Loki could reply, thunder shook the sky and Thor landed next to him, swatting Yondu back towards his ship with a light hit from Mjolnir. Thor turned, with a look of concern, to look at Loki, staring at the bleeding wound in his midsection.

"Are you alright, brother?"

Grunting as he stood, Loki threw him a withering look.

"Oh I'm stunning… It should be fine it's already healing and he could have done much worse with that… thing. How many of them have we " _scared off?_ ""

"Only a few more left, I believe."

As if to prove him correct, another Ravager ship flew above their heads, pursued by the Quinjet.

Loki grimaced as he held a hand to his stomach in an attempt to stop the bleeding of his slowly healing wound.

"I'd say this is all turning out to be a rousing success."

Thor nodded and prepared to take off again but Loki stopped him, holding out a bloodied hand and pointing toward a nearby rooftop.

"Drop me off there."

An arched eyebrow from Thor annoyed Loki enough to warrant a curt justification.

"Oh, I'm sorry, normally I'd _love_ to not need your help. However; the gaping hole in my stomach might disagree with that at the present moment. Must I do everything myself?"

Shrugging, Thor hooked an arm around him and took off.

After being set down, with some displeasure from his damaged gut, Loki watched Thor leap off the roof, intercepting a Ravager ship mid flight, throwing it off course and out of Loki's line of sight.

He turned to survey the rest of the city, picking out the three remaining "undefeated" ships. One being pursued by the Quinjet, the other bucked into view some distance away with Thor on top, and the last followed closely by Tony.

"Hmm…I wonder if the same trick would work twice…"

Still clutching his wound with one hand, he reasoned out the path of the ship, picking a far off rooftop to send a light copy to. He moved to lean against the roof access door, wincing as he twisted his body that was busy knitting itself back together.

As the ship approached, diving and dodging to avoid Tony's fire, Loki prepared his double. Though he couldn't see his double when it jumped, he saw the results. The Ravager ship slowed and swerved up, almost causing Tony to collide with it.

Taking advantage of the situation, Tony surrounded himself and the ship in a cloud of smoke and shrapnel. Moments later, Tony emerged from the smoke cloud, diving below Loki's eye level quickly after. The Ravager ship spiraled upwards, leaving trails of smoke as it fled the city.

Satisfied and more than slightly fatigued, Loki let himself fall to a sitting position. Closing his eyes, he let himself settle into a meditative like state, ignoring the distant explosions and gunshots and focusing on his wound.

Through his meditative haze he vaguely heard a voice call his name.

"Loki! _Loki_!"

A rough slap to the face jolted him to consciousness. Jumping up, he reflexively lashed out, conjuring a dagger in a split second. Metal scraped across metal and shouts ensued.

"You tried to stab me!"

The familiarity of the voice flung Loki out of his fear response and he got his bearings as he looked around.

The Avengers stood before him, Tony, helmet off, looked offended, clearly the receiver of the dagger's swipe.

Loki's surprise skipped relief and turned quickly to annoyance.

"It's not as if you couldn't _expect_ me to react to a slap to the face. Was that really necessary?"

Tony, still looking put out, didn't respond, instead busying himself by inspecting the scuffed paint where the dagger had struck his shoulder. His silence left Steve to speak, shaking his head slightly as he did, a tired but soft smile on his face.

"You left a pretty nasty looking bloodstain on that wall. Someone had to make sure you were still in the land of the living."

"Surely you could see me breathing?"

Steve's grin widened guiltily and Loki stood up in a huff as he shot them all a venomous glare.

"Alright then, if you all are done acting like children; have the Ravagers left?"

The general consensus was that the Ravagers had taken off after each of their ships had been damaged externally. Last to leave was a ship that matched the description of Yondu's, who had apparently gotten off a few potshots on the Quinjet and tower just before he had disappeared.

"Everything considered, I think we pulled it off pretty well. Looks like they kept their end of the bargain, we'll know for sure once S.H.I.E.L.D. ensures there were no civilian injuries. If this does for us what you think it will, Loki, we may be the most secure I think I've ever seen the Earth since- too long."

Steve concluded, a strange silence fell among the group as they contemplated the idea.

 **00000**

New projects and interests quieted the tower as people came and went, travelling constantly. Some days Loki could walk through the tower aimlessly, empty of all living beings save for himself.

A streak of relative peace on a scale needing their full attention had left them, as a team, with a sense of security and more than enough free time. The peace loosened the rigid training schedule they had all set for themselves, there were days Loki never looked up from a book or project, save to fetch a glass of water from his sink. On the occasion that enough of them were in the same place at the same time; they would talk late into the night. But for the most part Loki's days grew silent.

Even Thor, his most common company, left occasionally on extended forays, often to Asgard and beyond. Thor's logic stemmed as the work being a sort of apology for Loki's stealing of the Tesseract and his covering it up. Every time Thor would leave he would inquire if Loki wished to accompany him, but Loki never accepted.

The tiny tracker in Loki's arm was an ever present force in his life. It influenced all his decisions and grounded him. While Steve, Natasha, and Clint were off doing other work for S.H.I.E.L.D., and Tony was building the facility to house the gems, and Bruce was holding conferences and speaking at universities about his research, Loki was stationary. He knew he was being monitored, his movements watched constantly by some insidious agent on the receiving end of the tracker's data. Should he visit any of his old stomping grounds they would be compromised. The one thing he felt he could do to preserve the last vestiges of his many secrets was to ignore them.

Sleet fell past his windows as Loki set down one of the many security briefings Natasha sent him on a regular basis. He arched his back and stood. From his view high above the streets, the city seemed as foreign and distant as it ever had.

There was an itch in the recesses of his mind, the two gems that had yet to be moved. Shoving away the thoughts, he massaged his arm, glancing down at the deep purple bruise that had developed around the tracker. Mimicking Tony's voice bitterly, Loki pressed down harder on the bruise.

" _No touching_ … Pshh…"

Before he could stew in his own bitterness a buzzing noise rang out and Jarvis interrupted his musings.

"Sir, I have received a message from Mr. Stark. He wishes to inform you that he will be returning tonight for a short period of time and that, in his words, " _I managed to steal Steve and Nat from D.C. for the night. So get some dinner ready, you hermit."_ Those were his exact words, sir. If you are not willing to cook I could order-"

"No, no it is fine, that gives me something to do. Thank you, Jarvis."

Against his more resentful inclinations, Loki felt glad for the company he would soon have. He swept out of the room, contemplating what he would make and attempting to remember when he had last eaten.

* * *

 **AN: This final chapter has been sitting finished on my phone for weeks im terrible at time management. So, this story comes to a close and it may not be all that hard to guess where the next will go with certain references in this last chapter. When I do start writing that, though, it might be a while. Adapting my favorite marvel movie into this universe is not something im undertaking lightly. When I do that I'm going to give it my all. Leave comments if you want, its much appreciated for my motivation levels.**


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